Emmanuel McNeil-Warren is a rarity in the new college landscape.
It’s becoming less and less common for top NFL draft picks to come from non-Power 4 schools. In the NIL age, most of the best talent in the lower conferences ends up leaving for big paydays from major programs before going to the NFL.
But McNeil-Warren, despite being on the radar of top programs after his junior season, stayed put at Toledo. And after a dominant senior season, he is one of the best safety prospects in the draft.
“I feel like, wherever you’re at, if you know how to play ball, they’re gonna find you,” McNeil-Warren said. “Me being at Toledo, I was just working hard every day, trying to keep that motivation in myself. Telling myself ‘they’re gonna find me, wherever I’m at.’ Toledo, it’s a small school, a small MAC school so I treat it like you gotta work harder than anybody.
“People at Power [4] schools, they’ve got it easier, so I feel like me being at a MAC school, I had to work harder every day, push myself even when my body was tired, even when I was feeling like I had nothing, I had to keep pushing myself.”
Was it difficult to turn down bigger money elsewhere?
“To me, I wasn’t worried about short-term money,” McNeil-Warren said. “I was trying to worry about that long-term money in the league. … There were a lot of schools trying to get me in the portal, trying to get me to leave Toledo. Me, I’m big on loyalty. I feel like Toledo, they stayed true to me, they believed in me from the start, they developed me, so I felt like why switch up on them? They never switched on me.”
Toledo actually enjoyed a recent trend of producing NFL talent under head coach Jason Candle, who left after this past season to take over at UConn. Quinyon Mitchell, who was McNeil-Warren’s teammate for two seasons at Toledo, was a first-round pick by the Eagles in 2024 and has emerged as one of the best cornerbacks in the league — he was a first-team All-Pro last year.
And the Giants drafted defensive tackle Darius Alexander out of Toledo in the third round last year.
“Seeing Quinyon do it and the people in front of us do it,” McNeil-Warren said, “I feel like we could do it too. Just gotta have that great mindset. … We’re all in group chats on Instagram to our numbers, to Snapchat, we’re all in group chats. We be in touch every day.
“[Quinyon] helped us a lot. Just to keep us motivated, keep us going. That you can make it out of anywhere, for real.”
Caleb Downs, a potential top five pick, gets the vast majority of the attention among safety prospects this year. McNeil-Warren is likely to be drafted later in the first round, or potentially early in the second round.
More of a box safety, McNeil-Warren is a hard hitter and strong tackler who has a knack for forcing turnovers. His coverage skills are where he has the most room to grow.
“He definitely is more comfortable coming downhill than turning his back to the quarterback and making plays in deep coverage,” David Syvertsen, chief evaluator for Ourlads Scouting Services, told The Post. “The anticipation and the reaction time just isn’t there. He’s a little tight laterally. The two drills he did not do at his pro day or the combine were the agility drills and I think there was a reason behind that.”
But his specific skill set is one that has become in vogue in the NFL.
“The NFL is a copycat league,” Syvertsen said. “We just saw what Seattle did with Nick Emmanwori. We’ve seen what Baltimore has done with Kyle Hamilton. We’ve seen what Los Angeles has done with Derwin James Jr. These safeties that are 6-foot-3-plus, 210 [pounds]-plus and can actually run and hit and tackle, they’re hard to find. These nickel defenses, a lot of them are getting away from three corners, and they’re putting three safeties in because they can help in run support.
“That’s where a guy like this, he’s coming into the NFL at the right time, because a lot of teams are looking for this kind of profile which he has.”
McNeil-Warren seemed to arrive at Toledo at the perfect time. Now he’s entering the NFL at the perfect time.
He has a chance to become the NFL’s latest small-school success story.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
